TipsForGoodPPT - Make sure you refer to the Lab Handout on...

Make sure you refer to the Lab Handout on how your group presentation will be graded. All of those elements should be included in your talk. Additional Tips for a Good PowerPoint Presentation (Modified from Pechenik, Jan A. (2004). A Short Guide to Writing about Biology . Pearson Education, Inc.) Giving the talk: 1. Know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it. Hesitation, vagueness, and searching for words will all suggest a lack of understanding and will lose the attention of your audience. Write out your talk and practice it until you can produce a smooth delivery while maintaining eye contact with your listeners. Notecards can be an effective aid; be sure to number them in case they get dropped before or during your presentation. 2. Don’t rush. Even when showing complicated graphs or tables, take the time to orient viewers to the axis labels or column headings before plunging into the results. You might say, for example, “Here we see adenylate cyclase activity on the y-axis, in picomoles of cyclic AMP produced per minute per milligram of heart tissue, as a function of time after adding the peptides, up to 1.5 hours.” Remember, you audience has not seen these displays before; if you don’t first orient your listeners, you will be blithely talking about how interesting the results are while your audience members are still busy figuring out what it is they are looking at. 3. Make the data work for you by drawing the listeners’ attention to specific aspects of the graphs and tables that represent the point you wish to make. Don’t simply say, “This is clearly shown in the graph.” Rather say, “For example, all the animals that fed on diets A and B grew at comparable rates, but those fed on diet C. . .” and be sure to point to the data as you speak. 4.

This preview
has intentionally blurred sections.
Sign up to view the full version.